"They Are Always Present"

A few weeks ago I had a great conversation with my co-worker, Vangie. Vangie is our bookkeeper who comes into Dancers' Group once or twice a week. It is always a joy to have her come in. She is a great listener and has some really great advice for this young-in in the dance field (she is a littler older so has had much more experience in life than me!). While talking about my injury (my broken and fractured ribs) Vangie said something that hasn't left my head. She said....

"Life is full of Opportunities and Limitations...They are always present."

I have been struggling with wanting to dance again and deep down inside knowing that I am not quite ready for it. While not dancing for 4 months I was getting so unhappy. I didn't realize how much dance fuels me, fills me with life and keeps my spirits high. But, it does. I was feeling unhappy, depressed, aggravated over everything and just unmotivated. After 4 months (the doctor told me 3-6 months before I can start moving again) I thought I was ready to be back at it. The truth of the matter is though, that broken ribs take up to a year before they really heal. A whole year...I knew that I could never stop dancing for a whole year so after 4 months, I was ready to move again. (so I thought).

Once I started dancing again, I felt like the sun finally came out and my life was starting to be fulfilling again. I understand that seems over dramatic, but honestly, I wasn't myself for those 4 months and I was so thankful to be back. But, what I wasn't being honest about, was if I was ready to be moving again. Movement was hard, energy was low, stamina...well I didn't have any... basically I was pushing very very hard, and while I was so happy I was very weak.

I kept pushing in rehearsals thinking that I would be fine. But then a few weeks ago the LA company was in town and things started to take perspective. Why was I pushing so hard? Why was I willing to take very dangerous risks? This is when I spoke to Vangie and she let me know that everything going on is my life is an opportunity but my injury is my limitation. She let me know that its not about choices, its just worth recognizing that they are present.

Vangie's words of wisdom added a whole new perspective. This all occurred during my "hell week" so I was even more in-tune with my body and my capabilities. Holly (LA choreographer) taught company class that week and we spent many hours discovering my weaknesses and where I needed to grow. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it wasn't going to be easy to get there.

While I spent the week prepping my body for upcoming intense training, I had no idea how sever my desire to heal properly was until the closing night of the LA show in SF. Less than an hour before the LA show went on the stage, one of our male dancers did a movement from the show and ended on the ground rolling to the front of the room with tears in his eyes. We don't know exactly what he did, but what we did know was that he was not able to perform. I think I cried not because he couldn't perform but because I realized...that could be me.

Within 12 hours I made a change in my life. I contacted one of my choreographers and I re-evaluated my goals. While I was so happy to be dancing again, I didn't realize how foolish I had been. Rehearsing but not training was not smart and I had to change. I didn't want to be preparing for shows and at last minute not be able to go on because I was pushing too hard.

Therefore, I may not be performing much after March and while that sucks, I am so excited about the strength, knowledge and ability I am going to gain. Another one of my co-workers, Mo, is in the process of getting trained to teach Pilates so we now have weekly pilates dates, I am taking yoga 2-3 times a week, and technique 2-3 times a week (on top of the rehearsals that I am still going to.) After 2 weeks, my jeans are loser, my ribs are tender and muscles are sore, but I feel so rejuvenated and excited. AND, I will have abs!!

I hate not performing, but not performing for 6 months vs not being able to perform in 6 years (or less) hit me. I want to perform for a long long time, therefore now is the time to heal, rebuild and come back better than before.

This injury has really changed my life. I mean, who would have thought that the misery of broken ribs would ever be a positive thing, but at this point, it is. It reminded me that a dancer can't be a dancer if she(he) doesn't train and take care of oneself. While I may be missing out on some really great experiences, I can't wait till Aug (my goal of being back in business!).

The great and very honoring part of this, is that all my choreographers are willing to wait for me. They want me to heal properly and they want to work with me, therefore, this injury is not putting me out of the picture. I couldn't be any luckier to still be present in all the companies, even though I can't perform. I have a place in all the seasons when I am ready and I am so fortunate.

If this would have happened to me 5 years ago, I don't think I would be dancing today. I am so thankful that at age 23 I was able to have this injury, learn and be ready to come back stronger. Watch out rock solid body! :)

So anyone who is feeling like choices are having to be made and you are feeling conflicted. Remember that its not about choices as much as recognizing that:

"Life is full of opportunities and limitations...they are always present."

Therefore, stop thinking that you have to make a choice but rather accept the challenge and make the best of it.

6 Month Anniversary

Well In the midst of my crazy week last week, I forgot to mention a very very very special day...

Gerti and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary of being mama and kitty. No one can say that I am scared of commitment now huh?! :)

While my 6 month anniversary may not be with the man of my dreams, it is with the pet of my dreams and I couldn't be any happier with the spur of the moment rescue of Gertrude McFuzz Colett (aka: Gerti McStinky Butt).

How did Gerti and I meet you ask? So some may know the stories, but others don't. And since I love the story, I'll tell it again. (Please also be kind to any spelling errors as I do have a Gerti laying on me right now sleeping, and she does make it somewhat challenging to type!) Anyway, it was a Beautiful, warm and sunny day in San Francisco, the day of Hit and Run Hula (Dancers' Group's ONSITE) my mom and godmother were in town, and we had a full day planned. We meet up with Hit and Run Hula to start the day and then verged on our own to explore the AMAZING Ferry Building Farmers Market. While wondering around all the arts and crafts, we cam across the SF Animal Shelter who had cages ontop of cages of Kitties. Now of course I had to go over and say "hello" to them. (With no other intention mind you)

They were all so cute!! Probably 9 or 12 cages with multiple cats in them. The top left corner had 2 little tiny gray kitties who were so cute. One of them had their back to us and was a little bigger than her cage mat so of course I tried to get the little tiny kitty's attention and while doing so the kitty who's back was to us quickly jumped up and showed interest. I walked away to say hello to others, and before you knew it you just heard meows coming from the top left cage. I quickly walked back over and this little kitty (the bigger of the two...who had her back to us to start) had her paw on the cage and started purring like crazy. She was my match! The Animal Shelter rep took her out the cage and held her (I wasn't allowed too just in case she ran away) and as soon as I started petting her her purrs got louder and faster. It was crazy. I found my Kitty mate.

Now, I feel in love with this kitty within minutes and yet, I never thought in a million years I would get to take her home. While standing there, staring at her and falling deeper and deeper in love, my mom (being the most amazing mom ever) said "Do you want her? If Krystal (my roommate) is okay with it, then I will get her for you." I was in shock. Who would have thought a. that I would ever want a cat and b. that MY MOM would ever suggest getting me a cat! So I got her information, so I could go to the shelter later that day and pick her up if I wanted her. Her name on the paper: Tudy (the name made complete sense once I brought her home...whew that kitty had BAD gas!) and she was just 3 months and in need of a very loving home.

SO , I texted Krystal saying "I fell in love with a kitty, and my mom said she would get her for me, how do you feel about living with a kitty?" Now, Krystal has a dog that at the time was still in Michigan living with her parents. The dog was going to be in CA in less than a month and I didn't know how the two creatures would do and if Krystal would like having a cat. But to my surprise she said "Sure, Gabby (her dog) loves cats so get her!" OMG! I couldn't believe this. While we were waiting in line to take the SF Cable Car (trolley) to Fishermans Warf we decided that I was going to go get a kitty that day.

mom and I waiting to get on a cabel car...after we decided to go get Gerti!

I couldn't get her out of my head, I couldn't wait to hold her for the first time and play with her for real. So I rushed our afternoon and totally guessed how to drive to the shelter (seriously, never been to the shelter and I drove there with no directions...in SF I never can do that!) It was meant to be.

Once in the shelter I asked to see "Tudy" and gave them her number. They couldn't find her and I was almost heart broken thinking that someone else got this loving kitty. BUT, thankfully they found her. They took me up to her. Since she was in a cage all day for outreach they had her in a little room with her little friend (the smaller one of the two). "Tudy" quickly came running to me and started playing. I wanted to cry I was so happy to have her in my life. Over dramatic, maybe, but seriously nothing compares to finding your pet mate.

We went downstairs, I filled out paper work, and went through the interview. While finalizing everything, they then tell me that she has not been eating, had worms, fleas, stomach issues and just had been really sick. After reading a huge list of all of her issues they say "do you still want her?" I could see the fear of medical bills in my mom's face, but I couldn't let her be sick any longer...she needed to come home with me.

The whole ride home we started thinking of names. To be honest I don't even remember half of them. We were trying to come up with characters I had played in musicals and staying away from names that I could actually name a kid (if I ever chose to have a kid) We got home and we put her in the bathroom, like the shelter told me (keep them in confine spaces until they get comfortable. We then hit up wal-mart to buy everything you need when you have a kitty. I had NOTHING! We got home and I couldn't wait to sit and play with her.

The shelter was wrong with this kitty, keeping her in the bathroom was not needed. She was ready to play, cuddle and love. We got toys out and started playing!

Gerti Exploring her new home

My new Love! (She was so small...not that small anymore!)

Showing off her moves within hours of us bringing her home!

That night I put her back in the bathroom to sleep, by 6 am she was in my bed sleeping on top of me and not wanting to be separated from me.

Since then, we have been inseparable. She greets me everynight when I walk in the door, every morning when my alarm goes off she is right next to my face saying hello (no joke she says hello in meowing!) She cuddles when we go to sleep, she plays, she talks, she loves, and she brightens everyday of my life. I miss her when I don't see her, and I can't get enough cuddle time.



She was with me when I broke my ribs, she gives me strength when I am sick, she never leaves my side. She sits in the bathroom on the toilet when I get ready for work in the morning, she lets me know when she is cranky, and she kisses my nose to tell me that she loves me multiple times a day.

Kisses!

My mom saved my rough fall by getting me a true love. This angel of a cat has really made the past 6 months more wonderful than I could ever imagine. To those of you who don't have a pet, but feel like you need a companion, please go to your local Animal shelter and meet you petmate, they are out there! Soul mate ...I don't know if I believe in that...petmate though I believe in fully!

She loves TV

Our Christmas photo in SF

She is not so tiny anymore!

They day of our 6 month anniversary

*I have so many more pictures...but lets not get too crazy cat lady...Im sure Ill post them all someday! :)

Oh What a Week

Well, clearly last week took over and I didn't have any time to update the blog. I feel that I am long over due and I feel enthused to vent out the wonderful, insane, exhausting and inspiring week I had last week.

I guess going back over a week ago I had my Love Everywhere performance at City Hall. Love really was Everywhere and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Close to 2,000 people came to watch and support marriage equality, it was magical. The next day we spread the Love all over San Francisco in Flash Mobs. Wow is all I can say. 30+ people and Love is all we seemed to need. We walked about 8 blocks to downtown and at every stoplight, we crossed and hugged each other. I can't believe how many people we made smile by simply hugging one another. Once we got to downtown (at the trolley turnaround) we had about 10 couples doing "7 minutes in heaven." You know that game right? Basically couples making out for 7 minutes. Sounds silly but to see a majority of the couples be same sex and openly kissing passionately in front of the whole downtown population was kind of cool. The same time we had this awesome "Love Everywhere" backdrop and we got couples to take pictures in front of the backdrop. We then traveled into Westfield Mall, couples posed on the escalator embracing each other. The next stop was the food court, were everyone flirted with the workers, just to make people feel good :) Then, we all went to the Rotunda by the movie theater and slow danced with each other for about 10 min in silence, it was actually so comforting and beautiful, specially the same sex couples. We had some traveling things, but the highlight had to be Union Square. We went around to couples around Union Square and sang "L.O.V.E." wow, we made people smile. We had couples dancing, singing, kissing and just sharing love. Boy oh boy did we attract audiences, it was awesome. The day of events ended at a local bar where we all got drinks, hung out, and then sang "L.O.V.E" one last time. It got the whole bar singing and begging for more. So good! :) Our Love Everywhere audience statistics are showing that we spread love to over 5,000 people in 3 days! Yay Love (and marriage equality!)

So Moving on from the weekend of Love. Monday was the start of my, what I thought was going to be, "week from Hell." Boy oh Boy was I wrong about the week. I was stressing that it was going to be too much, too intense, and too stressful. To my delight, even though I worked 13-16 hour days, my week was amazing. It was full of such passion that I can't even begin to explain how very very fortunate I am for the life I have chosen.

Monday: Luckily Monday was Presidents day so I didn't have to work in the office (but got paid for 6 hours! Awesome right?) Monday was the day that I can only dream I could have everyday. The LA company was in town for the performances and so Holly taught class at ODC Mon, Wed and Fri. I took class Mon morning and while I was struggling to fully get through (still healing form my injury), I was so excited about really MOVING again, hard core. Then I went to tech rehearsal for HNDC's "Who is Mary Jane." Tech went well, until we got to the last section of the piece when we dance with in dirt for 13 minutes. So if we are keeping track of all my allergies, we can defiantly add dirt to it. Immediately my throat started closing, my eyes were swollen, my noise got stuffed up and a headache hit. Oh and all the skin exposed to the dirt, broke out into burns and welts. I felt like crap, but what do you do? The show must go on...right?! After tech I scooted over to ODC and immersed into Ledges and Bones rehearsal. It was so great to be with the LA (LAB) company. ooohhh so good! About 12 hours of dance in one day! Puts a smile on my face for sure.

Tuesday: I went into work at Dancers' Group for the morning. We finished Love Everywhere, and of course things don't every stop so now we are on to presenting Ben Levy's Visible Intimacy. I left mid day to go to Company Class with LAB, rehearsal and then back to Dancers' Group. THEN at 630 I left Dancers' Group to go back to ODC for LAB Tech rehearsal. At 12:30am we finished tech, and headed home. I got home at 1 am and crashed, fast. Oh and did I mention that this whole time my allergies from the dirt are getting worse and worse? I mean I was dying!

Wednesday: I got up early again, and got to Dancers' Group. I left mid day to go to LAB company class (oh so good yet again), and rehearsal. Then, I scurried to The Garage to prep for HNDC show! eek a Wed night show! I was thinking that few people would come since it was a mid week show. But I was wrong. Oh and I forgot to say, I had a premier of my work in the show. The show was packed. All the seats were taken, the aisles had people sitting in them and we set up rows of pillows on the ground that people sat on as well. I was so excited. The piece was going so well, and then the dirt section came...yes two days later and I am STILL extremely allergic to dirt. My throat started closing and I started swelling up, and couldn't breath. I thought I was going to die. We finished the piece I ran downstairs and luckily my roommate was there to calm me down, clean me off and help me breath. I didn't think I was going to be able to do my piece, but I wanted to so badly, so again, the show must go on. I performed and was just so thankful I did. The audience feedback was just outstanding. I could have never imagined having my piece be so well liked and respected. People were incredibly gracious after the show and I was thrilled.

Thursday: I ended up missing LAB company class and rehearsal due to work. I worked at Dancers' Group all day (which was pretty busy this week) Don't get me wrong, busy is good! I then rushed to the theater, warmed up, and prepped for night two of HNDC. Another sold out crowed and a very different performance experience. I was so sick from the dirt that my choreographer actually ended up performing with us so that she could do the dirt section while I sat out. My solo/duet went well again and was a completely different experience from the night before. All great though. I finished my piece and RAN out of the theater to rush to ODC theater for tech for LAB. Oh what a day that was for LAB. Our lighting designer had an emergency in LA and flew off for the day. His flight was suppose to be back at 8pm and at 10pm he still wasn't back...so his assistant had to light the piece. THEN I found out that one of our guy dancers had a possible fractured finger and could barley do any lifting (umm...this piece is full of INSANE lifts). At midnight, we left everyone feeling exhausted andworried.

Friday: I worked until 230 on Friday and headed to LAB company class and rehearsal. Can I just say, after not dancing for 4 months, to take company class everyday did me wonders. I learned a lot, figured out my MANY weaknesses and really started to come to reality with where I am at, where I want to be, and what I need to do. (more to come later on that). Rehearsal was encouraging and the spirits were up and ready to have a great show for the weekend. We then went to ODC, had dinner and prepped for dress rehearsal. Everyone was so tired that the first run of the piece (the one that of course the theatre director stood in to watch) was less than fabulous. Lights were funky, dancers were slow, bodies were not doing what they were suppose to be doing. They felt frustrated but 10 minutes later they did it all again but this time with such grace and perfection and we all left exhausted but so excited to have an audience experience the work.

Sat and Sun were the shows. Saturday nights so was unbelievable. The audience members were verbally saying "wow" and gasping through out the 30 min piece. we were all thrilled to a T. We opened champagne and celebrated! Talking to audience members after the show (now excuses my language but we are in the dance scene of SF...so this is not unusually language) everyone I spoke to could only a few words which were "fucking unbelievable!" We were a proud company that night. Sunday though, was not on our side. The weather turned nasty and the bodies became achy (as if they weren't already). We had a great 1.5 hour class and decided to do a mark through of the piece doing what needed to be done and marking what didn't . Well we had about 4 min left in the piece and a dancer on the ground who rolled out of the space in tears. Poor Brian, one of our fearless guys, got injured, badly. We got a doctor in, we iced, we heated, we gave him meds, we taped him up, and when we went through the piece to see what we could and couldn’t do, we found that we could not do the piece with him. So 30 min before we were set to perform, we reset the whole 30 min piece with 5 people instead of 6. It was heart breaking in many ways, but these dancers are so amazing and took the stage with grace and ease and performed a beautiful piece...not the same as it is with Brian, but they did a great job.

I am so excited though- while the week was exhausting, long, and full I have never felt so inspired and ready to get back to my old dancing self. With that realization though, this week has really been changing for me. More to come soon. Let just say though, strong body, here I come! Broken ribs you can't control me!

The Lunch Experiment

Many of you probably know 1. I never pack my lunch and 2. never go grocery shopping (because I eat MAYBE 3-4 meals total at home a week...)

Well, since I started my full time job and don't have to travel between a bunch of jobs in one day, I decided it was time to try to be responsible, go grocery shopping and pack my lunch for work everyday.

This proved to be a much harder challenge for me... I did complete the challenge but not sure how much I loved it.

Here proved to be the problems:

1. Buying a big load of groceries cost a lot of money... yes in the long run it probably does save... BUT spending $4-8.00 a day on lunch doesn't seem near as bad as spending $120 at the grocery store at once. (Food is way too much money)

2. I bought a lot of yummy veggies...but veggies don't last so I had to hurry and eat them and still ended up having to throw some stuff away (mushrooms, avocados, baby tomatoes, part of my cucumber, 1/2 and onion) Therefore, does buying groceries really save me if I have to throw things away?

3. You actually have to wake up earlier in the morning in order to make your food for lunch. Being that I am not a morning person and I don't move very quickly in the morning...that is not an easy task so I did a lot of rushing last week in the am!

4. I don't get to leave the office for 15-30 min when I bring my lunch because it is already there...so I either have to eat while I work and take a 30 min break later in the day to escape, OR I sit inside all day...

5. I have to do more dishes- and yes I do have a dishwasher but I don't put 1/2 my stuff in the dishwasher so I still end up hand washing it.

6. I got tired of the meals I was making.

But with all of that said, I actually was proud of myself. My lunches were pretty good and so of course I took pictures 1. to prove that I did it and 2. to show off my mad packed lunch skills :)

MONDAY: Smoked pepper turkey, swiss cheese, sprouts, avocado, cucumber, spinach on my favorite California organic whole grain protein bread.
Tuesday: Spinach Salad with: Mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, sprouts, cheese, carrots, corn, Garbanzo beans. (the lady at Starbucks that morning asked if she could have the salad because it looked so good!)
Wednesday: Ham and Swiss with spinach and sprouts
Thursday: I was becoming pretty good at the lunch thing by Thursday! It was the best lunch! Spinach salad with, avocado, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, croutons, cheese and sprouts.


Friday: So Friday I was on the road driving to LA so I made breakfast instead because I never eat breakfast so I figured "why not." I just fried an egg, provolone cheese, and sprouts on an english muffin. It was a good breakfast (that tied me over for awhile) but don't think it influenced me to keep eating breakfast...
While I wish that this is something I could keep up...I don't think I will. Maybe once or twice a week... but there just seems to be so little options of food to make that I can take to work. I have a microwave and fridge at work...but no stove and a little freezer that doesn't freeze well so even frozen lunches are kind of out (not that they are good for you anyway). SO if anyone has suggestions on a good travel to work lunch that doesn't require too much time in the am let me know! :)

LA LA Land

LA LA Land

Well, I just arrived back to The Bay from La La Land (Los Angeles) Once or twice a month I travel down to LA for rehearsals with Ledges and Bones. There are three of us from SF that pack up my car and I drive the 6 hour drive...oh wait...6 hours would be in a perfect world...in the REAL world it can take over 8 hours.

While driving...Right before the Grapevine and the bad storm

Friday morning we got a late start which caused us to not only hit a terrible rain storm at the Grapvine but then we hit rush hour traffic and once we got into the city, our 10 mile drive (we were suppose to make it to rehearsal by 4 (2 hours early) turned into an extra 2 hours so we didn't arrive to rehearsal till 10 till 6. Lets just say I was feeling very cranky. In fact, I believe I had a few choice words towards LA and the drivers there (and the weather!)

Cali Landscape

The major highlights of drive to LA is that I get to see my AMAZING friends Joho and Steve Berger! They are so fantastic and let me crash in their guest room and hang out with them. This weekend we went to a party at one of Steve's colleagues houses. It had a bunch of yummy food, drinks, and lots of film people. The dancers at rehearsal the next day asked if I got discovered...not this time though! :) Seeing JoHo makes me so happy. She tells the best stories, and always makes me smile. I am not a big fan of LA but I am big fans of the Berger's so I can't help but love going to LA in order to see them.

These are pictures from over a year ago of JoHo and Steve and me...but I didn't take any this weekend with them and they tots deserve a picture!! So I figured that the best pictures to post of them is with In-N- Out (the best burger place ever in Cali!)

The thing I hate the most about LA...hmm...where to start....the traffic, the hundreds of interstates (oh wait in LA they call them "Freeways"), its super spread out, the traffic, oh wait...did I mention the traffic?! On any given day a 10 mile drive can take hours. And today, I drove on about 10 interstates. Can we say ridiculous?!

I was driving on the I-10 (interstate) and if you look at the bottom left of my Garmin you'll see that the speed limit was 65 mph and next to that number you will see that I was sitting still at 0 mph! I was sitting still long enough to take my phone out and take this picture...all while sitting still on a major interstate...

Check out all the Green signs for all the options of interstates...while sitting in traffic...I actually was moving a little faster at this point!

In the faint distance you can see the mountain and white on it...it is the Hollywood sign

Me in front of the Hollywood sign (an old picture)

Hollywood...

Luckily today, the weather cleared up and it was warm and sunny. That makes LA nice! The radio on Friday night said, "Unfortunatly, tomorrow's high will ONLY be 65 degrees." No joke, they said ONLY! On Feb. 6 2010 I woke up with the weather on my phone informing me that it was going to be raining off and on (yuck) and that at 8 am it was already 60 degrees!! It made me laugh and think about all the midwest folks are freezing.

More Cali Landscape

Well, after a long weekend of rehearsals and driving, I am happy to be back in the bay with my kitty, even though its not as warm and sunny here.

Feeling Inspired and Ready

This weekend was one of those weekends that made me cry, made me inspired, made me sore, made me cry some more, made me frantic, stressed and inpatient and yet, made me thankful for my life- my career, my friends and the inspiration that is found everywhere.

I had about 20 hours worth of rehearsals this week, a few which overlapped each other and therefore made me have to chose where I should be and what I needed to be doing. I hate that. I hate having to put one rehearsal a step above the next persons as I find all the work I am doing important and inspiring.

The hardest part of the whole process is that I spent a majority of the time in rehearsal for Ledges and Bones Dance Project rehearsals (fri-sun). Not that the rehearsals are hard, but sitting and watching but not performing in the work is hard. I signed on as the administrative director of the company along with company apprentice. Due to injury though- about a month into the work, I was seated in the front watching, not dancing. The work is so inspiring and Holly (the artistic director) creates work that will for sure take the audience breath away. I am deeply honored to be working with her and the company of LA and SF dancers who truly know what it means to make sacrifices. Their bodies are beat up, they travel for little/no money, they poor their heart and soul into this 3o min piece and they dedicate so much time and energy to it. They make me smile, they make me cry, they are some of the most beautiful people I have ever met. They make me want to heal faster, stronger and healthier so I can hopefully soon, one day join them in the amazing spiral of Holly's work. (I am sure I will mention again but it is performing the 20 and 21st of Feb and really is not one to miss if you are in SF!)

The front of the postcard for the Feb show (we are the top image...it's a shared evening performance)

The back of the postcard for the Feb show (we are the top description)

Other inspiration came from my showing of Michelle Fletcher's Here Now Dance Collectives, informal showing of "Grass," tonight. The showing was for all the choreographers and mentor of ODC's Pilot program. We just showed what we had made thus far and received really great feedback. The mentor of the program, Lizz Roman, is an inspiration of herself. She is honest, to the point and yet so insightful. She informed me that she could see me stand in a funky head stand all day (I feel a 45 sec or more in a head stand is enough, but I will not be surprised if next week that head stand turns out to be much longer) The feedback was great as they were receptive and laughed. To perform the work in fornt of a small little audience is helpful as well as it gives us as dancers more inspiration about what we are doing. To know our work is focused, funny in places, rhythmic and physical. I think we all left feeling alive and ready to take the next step in the piece.

This is the poster for HNDC piece in Feb

Last but not least I had one of the 4 long but so fulfilling rehearsals for Erika Chong Shuch's, Love Everywhere. The piece is made up of 50 dancers who will join together Valentines weekend with a 13 piece orchestra and a few lead vocalist (don't get me wrong we are all singing...but there are 2 more trained featured vocalist). Oh did I mention we will be performing at San Francisco's City Hall in honor and celebration of marriage equality. It is an honor, and for sure an inspiration to be moving with 50 people in such a huge space, speaking about something that i feel very strongly about, marriage equality. It breaks my heart that my best friends can't be married because their partner is the same sex as them, therefore I am feeling so blessed to be able to work with the community on a piece that stands up for people I love so much. The piece will take place 15 min (at noon) after a mass of 300 homosexuals come in to City Hall to ask for a marriage license, and get declined. For those of you who don't live in SF, please know that it is a very gay friendly community and yet it has been a debate back and forth for years on whether or not marriage equality should be aloud- it blows my mind that it is even a question, but it is. I am thrilled to be representing a mass of people who love each other and deserve all rights.

This is the company of dancers who are performing in "Love Everywhere" (we are all making hearts with our hands!)

Please visit the website to read more: www.loveeverywhere.org


Needless to say, my steamed broccoli and large glass of warm red wine was a perfect ending to my full and crazy weekend full of definitions on why I am a dancer, and performer and hopefully an addition to the inspiration that these pieces have on me.